UW student: 'I heard Meredith screaming'

Knox reportedly changes story, tells police she was in house during murder

LEVI PULKKINEN AND VANESSA H, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By LEVI PULKKINEN AND VANESSA HO, P-I REPORTERS

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, November 7, 2007

THE BOYFRIEND: Amanda Knox and boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito of Italy are shown outside the house in Perugia where Knox's roommate was found slain Friday.
Photo: / Associated Press

THE BOYFRIEND: Amanda Knox and boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito of...

THE CRIME SCENE: Italian police officers inspect the house in Perugia where Amanda Knox and British student Meredith Kercher lived and where Kercher was found slain Friday. The 21-year-old woman's throat had been cut, and police say she also had been sexually assaulted. Police also arrested Knox's Italian boyfriend and a Congolese bar owner who allegedly was at the house.
Photo: / Associated Press

THE CRIME SCENE: Italian police officers inspect the house in...

THE HONOR STUDENT: With a cap pulled over her head and handcuffs on, Amanda Knox, 20, is led from police headquarters in Perugia, Italy, on Tuesday after being detained on suspicion of murder and sexual assault. Knox, an honor student studying European languages at the UW, left for Italy at the start of the academic year as part of a study-abroad program.
Photo: / Associated Press

THE HONOR STUDENT: With a cap pulled over her head and handcuffs...

THE BAR OWNER: Congolese musician Patrick Diya Lumumba, 37, who owned a bar in Perugia where Amanda Knox worked, is escorted Tuesday from the police station in Perugia. He is a suspect in the sexual assault and murder of Meredith Kercher. Knox reportedly told police she saw Kercher and Lumumba go into the bedroom where Kercher's body was later found.
Photo: / Getty Images

Amanda Knox -- the University of Washington student implicated in a shocking slaying in Perugia, Italy -- reportedly has told investigators she was in the next room as her female roommate cried for help and her throat was cut.

"The only thing I can say is that at a certain point I heard Meredith screaming," Knox told authorities, according to leaked police reports obtained by Corriere Della Sera, a Milan newspaper.

"I was scared and put my hands over my ears," she said. "I can't remember anything else. ... I was in shock, but I could imagine what was going on."

Knox's statements contradict her earlier claims that she wasn't in the apartment the night of Nov. 1 during the slaying of her roommate, 21-year-old British exchange student Meredith Kercher. Knox did not say whether she had any involvement in the killing, or a sexual assault that police say led to the bloodshed.

The sensational murder/sexual assault involving two young, attractive American and British women sparked front-page headlines across Europe.

The 20-year-old from West Seattle was arrested Tuesday by homicide investigators. Police also arrested Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23, and Congolese musician Patrick Diya Lumumba, 37, who owned a bar in Perugia where Knox worked.

British media reported late Wednesday that police had collected a pocketknife from Sollecito's home. Police had said previously that a murder weapon had not been located.

Knox and Sollecito initially told police they'd returned to the apartment the next morning to find Kercher dead and the place ransacked.

But Knox changed her story Tuesday after her arrest. She said she'd been drinking heavily that night but was at the apartment when Kercher was killed, according to Corriere Della Sera and other media accounts.

She said she saw Kercher and Lumumba go into the bedroom where Kercher's lifeless body was later found. Knox said the bar owner went to Kercher's room to "have some fun," according to the Italian paper.

Italian prosecutors are considering what charges to file against the suspects, but in an arrest warrant filed Wednesday, authorities assert that Knox's inaction contributed to the danger Kercher faced.

"The sexual intercourse involving (Kercher) and (Lumumba) must be regarded as violent, given the particularly threatening context in which it took place, and to which Ms. Knox must have contributed to," one prosecutor wrote.

Knox and Kercher were both studying in Perugia, a city of 160,000 people about 105 miles north of Rome. Knox, an honor student studying European languages at the UW, left for Italy at the start of the academic year as part of a study-abroad program not affiliated with the university.

Those who knew Knox were shocked Tuesday to learn the outgoing young woman was a suspect in Kercher's murder. A records check shows Knox had only one run-in with law enforcement prior to her arrest -- a public disturbance citation issued June 30 after Seattle police were called to a party at her home at 5237 12th Ave. N.E. She wound up paying a $269 fine.

Perugia Police Chief Arturo de Felice said earlier this week that Kercher had been sexually assaulted by at least one man the night of the slaying.

"All three (suspects) took part in the act," de Felice told reporters. It was unclear what "act" he was referring to: the sexual assault or the killing.

Sollecito, 23, also has changed his story since the slaying, calling his first version "a whole lot of rubbish," according to newspaper accounts. Now, he has told police he left the apartment that night, went home and smoked a joint. He couldn't remember what he ate for dinner or what Knox was wearing.

Knox claimed she couldn't recall whether Sollecito was in the apartment at the time her roommate was killed.

In their initial statement to police, she said she spent the night at her boyfriend's home. They both went to the apartment and discovered the murder scene the next morning, Sollecito told police.

Prosecutors are expected to make their case to a judge Thursday in a preliminary hearing.

They must show that they have probable cause within 48 hours of an arrest, said M. Cherif Bassiouni, a law professor at Chicago's DePaul University who specializes in Italian criminal law.

The three suspects will not be eligible for pretrial release if the judge sides with prosecutors, Bassiouni said. Ultimately, a 12-member panel comprised of three professional judges and nine citizens could try them.

A State Department spokesman said Wednesday that consulate staff hadn't spoken with Knox. State Department staff can assist Americans abroad in navigating foreign legal systems but do not interfere in court proceedings.

Bassiouni, who has directed a criminal law center in Rome for 34 years, said leaks of police information are uncommon in Italy and actually banned by law.

"Sometimes, though, when it involves foreigners, the police or prosecutors leak information to show that they're doing their jobs," Bassiouni said.